Racing Diary: Charlie Burnett-Wells in the doghouse

Now that racing is worldwide there is a small industry involved in the
movement of horses and one of the generals in the logistics corps of equine
transportation is Kevin Needham, who is BBA (British Bloodstock Agency)
Shipping's managing director.

By Marcus Armytage

8:03PM BST 31 Aug 2009

From his Newmarket office he plans the itineraries of horses, fixes flights and lorries, quarantine, books flying grooms – the list is endless.

So, when the Cotswold Hunt rang to arrange for two hounds, Goblin and Goddess, to be flown to South Africa he assumed sticking them on the next scheduled horse flight to Johannesburg would be a doddle.

A couple of days before they were due to leave there was no sign of Goblin or Goddess. So he organised their collection, the Ministry vets were persuaded to run blood tests on the hounds overnight (when they usually require 15 days notice) and for the first leg of the journey, from Newmarket to Ostend by boat, Needham entrusted them to the capable hands of his flying grooms.

Having seen them off Needham sat down, wiped his brow, and couldn't really believe that the hounds were actually on their way. "The only thing that can possibly go wrong," he mused portentously "is that one of those clowns loses a hound."

For flying groom and ex-jump jockey Charlie Burnett-Wells escorting a couple of foxhounds across continents might have been the job for which he was born. Brought up on Exmoor as virtually first whip to the god of hunting, Capt Ronnie Wallace, it would not be unfair to say that in the Burnett-Wells mind few men have been endowed with a knowledge of hounds equal to his own.

Therefore it was with some surprise the next morning that Needham received a phone call from Burnett-Wells, MFH of the newly formed Ostend hounds. "We have a problem," he said. "Goblin's run away."

The sporting Belgian police put up a helicopter, Burnett-Wells commandeered a car and Goblin, presumably on the scent of a Belgian fox, was heading straight for the E40, one of the busiest motorways in Europe, some six miles from his intended point of departure. Any further and the only place he was being shipped to was hound heaven via the wheels of a juggernaut.

It was there that Burnett-Wells, six hours into his search, spotted Goblin going into a farmyard and the scene was set for all that hound-craft to be put to good use. On seeing Burnett-Wells, though, Goblin bolted again towards the E40.

The not-so-expert Belgian farmer, however, decided to get down on his hands and knees and make squeaking noises - not the traditional method by which huntsmen round up roaming hounds but, on this occasion, effective.

Thus Goblin was re-united with Goddess and the plane was boarded, just, but Burnett-Wells, whose blushes were ultimately spared, will not be too distraught if Goblin gets tangled up with a lion in Africa anytime soon.

Run-of-the-mill race will establish who is real McCoy

We all know how competitive AP McCoy is but, it turns out, he may not be the most competitive person in his own family. His wife, Chanelle, has challenged him to a 5km run and has been 'running her brains out' in an attempt to better her husband at something.

He thinks she is mad, setting herself up for a disappointment, but she has trained hard while the last time he ran anywhere was to catch Blowing Wind, from whom he had been unseated, in the 2001 Grand National.

The contest takes place on a gym treadmill on Sept 10 and, obviously wise to a possible get-out for the Champion jockey – a feigned injury – the only rule is that if he is fit to ride he is fit to run.

Mrs McCoy's prize, in the likely event of victory – she's been telling him the wrong times for her 5km training runs (they are two minutes quicker) – is a limited edition Chanel handbag. "I've had my eye on it since May," she says.